Western Massachusetts towns work to upgrade broadband Internet access

The Republican / John SuchockiMegan R. Stokes, of Boston, logs on to the Internet from her car outside the M.N. Spear Memorial Library in Shutesbury recently. Stokes, who is development director for the Toxics Action Center in Boston, found the connection with the help of her car's GPS unit. Town residents regularly take advantage of the library's wireless Internet access from the parking lot because few broadband connections are available in town.

Forty-seven Western Massachusetts towns with little or no Internet access are working together to upgrade to broadband.

Sixteen towns in Franklin County, seven in Hampshire, three in Hampden and 21 in Berkshire have banded together to create a cooperative they are calling WiredWest, which plans to build and operate a community-owned, open-access broadband network in the member towns.

In 2008, Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation creating and funding the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, whose goal is to bring high-speed Internet to every home and public place in the state. In September, MBI announced MassBroadband 123, a $71.6 million project to bring service to 123 unserved and underserved towns statewide cities by 2013.

Along Interstate 91 from the Connecticut border to the Vermont border, crews hired by the MBI have constructed a “backbone” fiber optic cable infrastructure.

WiredWest hopes to facilitate the construction and operation of the member towns’ “last miles,” the cables that connect to the users’ homes. Residents will not be required to use the network.

The network will be “open access,” allowing any company to sell their services through the cables.

“In theory, the fee structure would be lower through WiredWest because the various providers would be competing to provide content,” said state Rep. Paul W. Mark, D-Hancock.

A subscriber could use several different service providers at once, such as Verizon for telephone and NetZero for Internet, as long as each company uses the network.

Internet access has been a major concern for residents, who often have inadequate service if they have any at all.

“It’s as if you lived in the 1950s and didn’t have electricity,” said Monica Webb, a Monterey resident and chair of the WiredWest Marketing Communications Committee. “That’s how important it is (to have Internet access).”

Shutesbury town administrator Becky Torres said the town’s Internet woes are an “economic and educational handicap.” Fifty percent of residents use dial-up connections, she said.

“Dial-up in this day and age is equivalent to no access,” she said.

Other options in Shutesbury include satellite Internet, which Torres said is expensive and unreliable in bad weather, and using public facilities.

Shutesbury’s M.N. Spear Memorial Library has set up its wireless Internet signal so that people can catch it while working outside the building. During the winter months, laptop users often go online from their cars in the parking lot, said Library Director Mary Anne Antonellis.

“It’s not a level playing field for our school-aged children” whose grades can suffer because of access problems, Torres said. She hopes to have universal access for Shutesbury in two to three years, she said.

A certain percentage of each town’s residents would need to use at least one service in order for WiredWest to build out in the town. The percentage likely will be in the 30 to 40 percent range, but that has not been decided, said Webb.

The plan is in its early stages, with funding for the “interim operational phase” coming from grants (including one from the MBI for a feasibility study), private donations and in-kind expertise. Financing for the construction phase of the project is expected to come from private notes, grants and low-interest loans, said Webb.

WiredWest hopes to bring service to more than 27,000 homes, 3,000 businesses and dozens of community institutions in the 47 charter towns, according to its website. More towns may be allowed to join as the project moves forward, said Webb.